Biden’s “Blue Wall” of States: What Does It Matter If He Steps Into The White House or the House of Representatives?
Biden will hit the “Blue Wall” of states on Friday, after campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sunday and Wisconsin on Friday. These three states are seen as critical to a Democratic victory in November.
President Biden’s widely panned performance in the debate against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump prompted five House Democrats to go public with their calls for him to step aside as the 2024 presidential nominee. Many others feel that he could derail Democrats’ chances to take the House and keep control of the Senate.
He has been trying to demonstrate that his debate flub was just one bad night and not a sign of something more serious. A praise band belted out the worship song ” I need you to survive” at the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ when Biden attended on Sunday.
“Give us forgiveness for allowing them to drive wedges between us,” he prayed. There’s no election we cannot win if we ever lock arms and come together.
Later, Biden stopped at a campaign field office where he gave some high-energy unscripted remarks about economic issues important to voters, like grocery and insulin prices.
“Dark Brandon’s coming back”, Biden said, to the group of about 150 cheering volunteers. “And guess what: in the next 120-some days or so, they are going to get a real good look at who Donald Trump is,” he said.
Biden was flanked by Sen. John Fetterman and Rep. Madeleine Dean. Fetterman said that only one person in the country has kicked Trump’s ass in an election. He is going to do it twice.
The virtual meeting was an opportunity for top Democrats in the House to convene before lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Monday. Top leaders have generally not taken a stance on Biden’s future as the party wrestles with a president and a party at a crucial crossroads.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he wants Biden to “seek out people with some distance and objectivity” as he weighs his decision. He noted that an interview Biden did with ABC on Friday “didn’t put concerns to rest” about his candidacy — particularly Biden’s assertion that — even if he loses to Trump in November — what matters most is that he gives it his all.
But Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said she is heard from voters during the Independence Day break that Biden should stay in. “I had people in parades shout at me, ‘Tell him to stay — we have his back,'” she told CNN’s State of the Union. “As much as you’re hearing different opinions from other people, it’s why’s happening,” she said.
The senator said he spoke with Biden on Saturday. The president talked about what he’s seeing in internally polling data, and what his plans were for coming days. “He is as pumped and eager as I’ve seen to make sure that he is taking this campaign seriously,” he said.
In Washington this coming week, Biden will have a crucial week as his party’s lawmakers return to congress and world leaders come to the city for a NATO summit.
In Ann Arbor, Mich., Tom Brush called the current state of the Democratic race “a sad moment,” explaining he doubts whether Biden can make it through the election and had hoped the president would voluntarily step aside for the good of the party — perhaps for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“My experience is that if you’re not important in your life, you can reach a stage where you’re important again,” said Brush, in an interview at his home.
The Problem of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party: He’s Coming to the Final Stage of the Preliminary Nominating Convention
Biden blamed his poor debate performance on exhaustion, and insisted that medical checkups prior to the debate found “no indication of a serious condition.” Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he was sick prior to the debate with a “really bad cold.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on House Armed Services panel, Rep. Mark Takano of California, the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs panel, and Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the ranking member of the House Administration panel, told leaders on a virtual meeting that Democrats should seek a change at the top of the ticket.
The House Democrat, who had been granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal party discussions, said he was worried because Biden may not do events past 8 p.m. The member added that Democrats don’t have much time for Biden to leave if he ultimately choses to do so but time is running out for a graceful exit.
There have been no calls for Biden to step aside from the senators so far.
Indeed, many Democrats are still publicly supporting Biden, even as anxiety grows within their ranks. The issue is causing panic within the party just over a month before their August nominating convention in Chicago.
He said he doesn’t know if the interview on Friday night did enough to answer the questions. “This week is going to be critical in a lot of ways.” I think the president needs to do more.”
“Joe Biden is who our country needs, and his presidency has laid a foundation upon which we can continue our pursuit of a more perfect union,” he said in a social media post on Friday. Mr. Clyburn supported Mr. Biden in the South Carolina presidential primary and helped him to win his first term.
Mr Clyburn caused some Democrats to worry when he spoke of the possibility of a mini-primary to replace Mr. Biden if he drops out of the race. But he quickly moved to clarify that he considered the idea strictly hypothetical.
It is reminiscent of how Black Democrats rallied behind Mr. Biden to help propel him to his primary victory in 2020. It also speaks to a broader racial and generational divide in the party that could be consequential in determining how it moves forward from the president’s current crisis.
“The reality is Joe Biden has confronted and had to come back from tragedy, from trials, from tribulations throughout his entire life,” Mr. Jeffries said during an interview with MSNBC. We are in a comeback moment at the moment.
The Biden campaign took solace in the fact that the Black Democrats were backing them, even at a bad time. It chose a black church as the backdrop to have Mr. Biden make his case on Sunday.
In Philadelphia, Mr. Biden told a congregation at the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ that he was optimistic about America’s future if we stick together.
At the New Orleans festival over the weekend, Representative Maxine Waters of California made it very clear she wouldn’t tolerate anyone else being a Democratic candidate. “It’s going to be Biden.”
“The choice for American leadership and our democracy is clear,” Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a former chairwoman of the Black Caucus, said in a social media post late Sunday in which she lauded Mr. Biden’s record as a defender of democracy.
Up First Newsletter: Boeing to Plede guilty to fraud and Hurricane Beryl Lands in Texas (Aug. 21 a.m. ET)
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The Justice Department said in a court filing that Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from the two fatal crashes of the MAX. As part of the plea deal, Boeing will pay a $243.6 million fine, invest upwards of $450 million toward safety and compliance programs and be on probation for three years.
France’s far-right party failed to get a majority after a historic number of voters participated in the country’s snap elections. The country saw a 67% voter turnout.
Beryl made landfall in Texas this morning as a Category 1 Hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5:00 a.m. ET update. More than 100 counties are under a state disaster declaration, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said yesterday more may be added. More than 2,500 responders have been dispatched across the state.
Source: Boeing will plead guilty to fraud and Hurricane Beryl lands in Texas
A Conversation with Ubaldo Sanchez: How to Keep It Fair and Square During a Mexican-American Experience at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Dining out with your friends is all fun and games until it’s time to pay for your meal. It’s a fine art to split the bill. New York Magazine food editor Kiki Aranita says there should be “a sense of equality in how the check is divvied up” when the meal ends. She offers advice on how to keep things “fair and square”:
Indigenous arts and culture from across Latin America were on display at this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival. From an all-female Bolivian skateboarding crew to artists singing and painting to weaving, people from the Latin American contingent at the festival shared their stories with excited onlookers. One of the artists NPR’s team met was Ubaldo Sanchez from Guatemala. His portrait of former President Obama was selected for his White House collection, and he successfully painted a giant kite by the festival’s closing. 📷 See photos from the festival and read about the special connection Sanchez found with NPR’s Marc Silver.
